The Shearin Group Outstanding Leaders on five tips Universities to value their staff

"A lot depends on where your university
is and what you want the vice-chancellor to do. Do you need more student
recruitment? Do you need more research grant money? So often the university
strategic plan says things like, ' Be the best world-leading university at, er,
everything. ' Well, sorry, but we don't believe you. Some universities – I am
thinking De Montfort, Coventry, or Sheffield – have strategic plans you can
actually believe, and at least one of those universities have linked the
vice-chancellor's pay explicitly to whether that job got done. "(officeslob,
commenter)

2) Trust your
staff

"It is an essential quality of any
leader that they should develop
and empower their staff. This means trusting them to innovate and get on
with things without always looking over their shoulder or filling a form to say
they've done something. " (Sue Shepherd, higher education management
consultant, University of Kent)

3) Be fair

"Academics
are slightly strange animals and difficult to lead (and we all know they are
difficult to manage!) – very individualistic and therefore many may not be
considered team players. However all academics want to work in organisations
where they are treated fairly e.g. don't bully someone for not being REFable
when their admin/teaching workload is enormous etc. " (Paula Nicolson,
emeritus professor, Royal Holloway, University of London)

4) Appoint good
people

"I see ' leaderful ' practices in classrooms,
research teams and student-led activity throughout the HE sector. Sometimes
this is found despite prevailing managerial cultures in institutions; sometimes
it is purposefully engendered by leaders dispersed through universities whose
activity seems clearly-defined by enacting their values and their belief in the
potential of higher education to engage and transform. " (Paul Gentle,
Leadership Foundation for Higher Education)

5) Value all
staff

"Universities need to value their staff
– permanent and casual. Many casual staff are the academics and administrative
managers of the future and need to be engaged by the leaders because both have
a future together. " (Paula Nicolson)

"I would like people to reflect on whom
exactly is being led by these visionary leaders; from my experience, an army of
casual, underpaid and underprotected temporary staff, tasked with delivering
teaching, marking and support to students. It suits management and sadly, it
suits the permanent members of staff, relieved of their boring teaching duties
and more able to work on their research and seek external funding. This is the
model, let's not forget it in this fog of management-speak and emotional
intelligence talk. " (Enheduanna, commenter).